New Delhi:
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Wednesday found herself in
trouble after a leaked Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)
report indicted her of involvement in irregularities in contracts
related to Commonwealth Games and the opposition demanded her
resignation.

An angry Dikshit retaliated by saying that her government has not
"done anything wrong".

"We have not done anything wrong. Everything was done keeping in
mind the national interest and prestige. We were entrusted with
certain responsibilities and we delivered them," Dikshit said.

Earlier in the day, a senior Delhi government official defended
the government.

"The reportage of the CAG report does not give the facts
accurately and we would like to correct it so that the image of
the government is not maligned," Tripathi told mediapersons in a
hurriedly called press conference.

"The media reports said that for street lighting four parties were
selected of which one was selected later on directions of the
chief minister. We want to make it clear that at no stage did the
chief minister give any such directions.

"It was decided by the board of assessors who made
recommendations. At first Spaceage (company give the contract) was
not selected and later they made a representation. The CM has
simply marked it to the engineer-in-chief and did not even make
any recommendation.

"The Works Advisory board is headed by the principal secretary of
PWD. The board rejected Spaceage. It was after being rejected by
the Works Advisory Board that the company went to the court and
then the court ordered that they have to be included. So their
inclusion is at the behest of the high court and not on the
directions of the chief minister," added Tripathi.

The CAG report leaked Tuesday faulted the Prime Minister's Office
for letting Suresh Kalmadi run the Commonwealth Games Organising
Committee.

The report, yet to be tabled in parliament, also said that the
Delhi government and civic agencies overspent Rs.100 crore on
streetscaping and Rs.31 crore on street lightning.

Lok Sabha MP -- and the chief minister's son -- Sandeep Dikshit
also came out in her defence.

"The Delhi government and the department will give their reply. We
will have to see the report. Any comment by the CAG on any aspect
has to examined. CAG is not the final word," he said outside the
parliament house.

But the opposition was not satisfied and lambasted the
Congress-led government in the state.

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said : "It is very clear that
the fraud was not the franchise of one man act but it was a
multi-agency cooperative corruption scam."

He was referring to former OC chief Kalmadi, who is now in Tihar
jail. Kalmadi is the prime accused in a corruption case related to
financial irregularities in awarding a Rs.141 crore contract for
timing, scoring and result equipment for the October 2010 mega
sporting event.

Added BJP leader Vijay Goel: "The Delhi government was allotted
Rs.77,000 crore, while the OC was given Rs.3,000 crore. Where did
the money go?"

Delhi state BJP spokesperson Vijay Jolly went a step ahead, asking
for a police complaint against Dikshit under the Prevention of
Corruption Act.

This is Dikshit's third term at the helm. She has been chief
minister since 1998. She is also the longest serving woman chief
minister in the country.

The Lokpal bill will be introduced in the Lok Sabha Thursday,
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said. "The
Lokpal bill will be introduced on Thursday. We have already given
notice but there are »

India
will focus on the issue of UN peacekeeping during its UN Security
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permanent representative of India to the UN has said.
An open debate on this matter has been scheduled for Aug 26,
Xinhua reported. »

As the UN Security Council mulls a
resolution on Syrian violence and more of the country's officials
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»

Hundreds of villages and towns along
the India-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh were flooded by waters
gushing down the Himalayan rivers, the government said Tuesday.
Incessant rain all along the Himalayan foothills
»

Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) legislators in Karnataka Tuesday remained
deeply divided over who should succeed scam-hit B.S. Yeddyurappa,
who resigned Sunday as the chief minister.
The race to become the BJP's
»

The
government Tuesday said it would provide financial assistance to
entrepreneurs for setting up food processing industries to avoid
wastage of perishable products. "The assistance is available to
all states of the country »

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